Welcome to the Center for Conflict Management!

See what students are saying about our certificate in this shortvideo!

Check out our undergraduate certificate, meet our faculty mentors, and start on an exciting journey where you will learn to better transform, prevent, resolve, or reduce the harms associated with the conflicts in our lives--from interpersonal to international.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain!

Want to learn more about the CCM Community...let's get coffee!

If you are interested, please fill out our one-page membership form and the university's one-page Add Certificateform...thanks! Once you are ready to graduate you will then need to fill out the Certificate Applicationform to apply to receive the certificate you have completed.

Learn to Reframe Conflict

In the Center for Conflict Management community we value learning and reinforcing the skills we all need to transform conflicts: to prevent, resolve, or reduce the harms associated with the conflicts in our lives. These are also among the problem solving skills used by social entrepreneurs.

Central among these skills is learning to reframe conflicts. The second video to the right is a powerful presentation from the founder of Priceline.com, Jeff Hoffman,about the importance of reframing our own internal mission statements to focus on the problem. When we focus on solving problems, paychecks will follow.

The first video provides a powerful three-minute introduction to reframing racial conflict...Or this one...

You might also consider the Implicit Association Test by clicking here. Or this video... Or this Jay Smooth 2.0 video...

Or, check out the wide variety of materials provided in our Food for Thought section.

Consider an idea that is central to JS Mill's argument in On Liberty, as articulated in a TED talk called 'Dare to Disagree.' Margaret Hefferman argues in this talk that...

...we need to rethink our approaches to the everyday collaborations that spark innovation and progress...because doing this depends on a shared openness to being persuaded.

Consider the idea of 'emotional correctness.'

In this second TED talk the speaker argues that 'political persuasion does not begin with ideas and facts or data. It begins with being emotionally correct. We cannot get anyone to agree with us if we can't get them to listen.'

We need to learn to 'talk through our disagreements,' by putting ourselves in our opponent's shoes to see if we might be able to (as Getting to Yes puts it) invent options for mutual gain.

Jesus calls this learning to 'love our neighbors as ourselves.' Gandhi calls it honoring our opponents perspective and when the Dalia Lama says 'my religion is kindness' he is reinforcing the same idea.